SB 120 UNLEADED AVIATION FUEL GRANT PROGRAM

Sen William Soules

Actions: [1] SCC/STBTC/SFC-SCC

Scheduled: Not Scheduled

 Senate Bill 120 (SB 120) creates the unleaded aviation fuel grant program and the Unleaded Aviation Fuel Grant Program Fund. It appropriates five million dollars ($5,000,000) to this fund. 

 Senate Bill 120 (SB 120) creates the unleaded aviation fuel grant program that the Aviation Division of the Department of Transportation (DOT) will develop and administer. Its purpose is to award competitive grants not to exceed two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to applicants for the sole purpose of installing an unleaded aviation fuel dispensing system or otherwise providing unleaded aviation fuel at an airport. Applicants are limited to publicly owned airports, state political subdivisions and Indian nations, tribes or pueblos. It defines unleaded aviation fuel as alcohol-free gasoline used in aircraft that has no more than one thousandth of one gram of lead per gallon. 
SB 120 creates the non-reverting Unleaded Aviation Fuel Grant Program Fund that the DOT will administer for the purposes of the program.
SB 120 appropriates five million dollars ($5,000,000) from the General Fund (GF) to Unleaded Aviation Fuel Grant Program Fund for expenditure in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and subsequent FYs for the purposes of the fund.
 
Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of a FY will not reverts to the GF.
 

 Testing has shown that unleaded fuels can prevent spark plugs from becoming fouled and exhaust valves from sticking, and lengthen the intervals between oil changes and engine maintenance which can bring down the cost of total aircraft maintenance.
Additionally, the Federal Aviation Administration and partners in the aviation community launched the EAGLE initiative as the result of a congressionally mandated report from the National Academies. On March 16-17, 2022, the inaugural EAGLE meeting was held in Washington, D.C.  This two-day EAGLE meeting was an industry-sponsored event that convened more than 120 U.S. and international stakeholders. The EAGLE team’s goal is to eliminate leaded aviation fuels in piston-engine aircraft safely by the end of 2030.